Education

The Columbia Chamber of Commerce supports appropriate legislative action to stabilize funding for all levels of education, and encourages the legislature to continue restoring recent funding reductions.

Early Childhood Education

Investing in the educational needs of Columbia’s youngest citizens helps to ensure the sustainability of our community and the future needs of our workforce, the Chamber supports legislation that would:

• Expand access to pre-K education for Missouri children.
• Expand opportunities for parents to be their child’s first teacher by supporting programs on school readiness, and healthy social, emotional, and physical development.
• Promote high quality early childhood opportunities through support of child care providers seeking accreditation and/or evaluation and improvement through the Missouri Quality Rating Improvement System.

Elementary and Secondary Education

Education for young people during their more formative years is critical in the creation of a safer community and a competitive workforce for the future. The Chamber supports legislation that would:

• Retain existing funding for public schools that educate children from Pre-K to 12th grade.
• Promote discipline and safety in Missouri’s public schools to ensure a safe learning environment for students.
• Support the infusion of incentive grants for public schools to develop Math, Engineering, Science and Technology programs to encourage students to gain skills and background in those disciplines.
• Allow passage of bond issues with a simple majority vote.

Higher Education and the University of Missouri

Columbia is home to several important higher-learning institutions that help ensure Columbia is a community ready for high-tech jobs for the future. As education is an economic driver of our region, the Chamber supports increasing number of adults with post-secondary degrees and strengthening the communication and analytical skills of persons entering the workforce. The Chamber further supports legislation that would:

• Retain the University of Missouri (UM System) fiscal year 2012 core budget of $405.8 million. Support additional core funding of $127 million to support maintenance and repairs, record enrollment growth, Caring for Missourians and faculty compensation packages to mirror UM’s peer institutions.
• Continue to support creative funding opportunities for capital projects for Missouri’s higher education institutions. Possible solutions could include bonding or forming a matching funding program with institutions.
• Support economic development initiatives such as MOSIRA and proposals that increase awareness about high-need job areas such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programs.
• Work with education leaders statewide to improve statutory clarity for charter school sponsors, including all four UM campuses.
• Support a statutory change to give MU Extension the ability to form cooperating county funding districts. This modification would give local counties more funding options for future local Extension programming.